Did you hear the old joke by Woody Allen? This is the whole premise of Annie Hall - the old joke come to life. To his credit, so much of this movie has become mainstream through Billy Crystal and Jerry Seinfeld, its hard to realize that it might have started here. It probably started earlier than that with the old comics Groucho and Milton and such, but reached a wide audience here.
Done at the height of the 70s, we see it all here: the sexual revolution, drugs, tennis, analysts, even a Paco Rabanne bedroom scene. There are also a lot of now-common movie premises: the Jewish/Christian dating conflict, the New York/LA conflict, the New York City v. the world conflict.
Woody Allen plays Alvie, who in flashback, looks back at his life, and in particular, the period when he dated Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Alvie is damaged goods, having been married twice. Annie is a woman on the way up but uncertain in her path. Alvie is alternatingly supportive and dismissive and appears intent on having Annie for his own, no matter what. Alvie spends much of the movie either with his analyst or playing his own analyst, to figure out why he is like he is.
To call this a romantic comedy is a stretch: its not a whole lot of either. Dialogue was good but not great. Again, this movie is 40 years old, so its hard to remember what was original and what was not. But credit that it still seems relevant, even if it is hard to remember what came first.
Best Picture in 1978
* * * (of 4)
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